Posts Tagged ‘Buffalo Stampede’

Buffalo Stampede 10-Miler

The Buffalo Stampede 10-Miler was held yesterday in Sacramento. The race signals the start of the fall season and is a tune-up for the Urban Cow Half Marathon in three weeks. It’s unusual in that the participants are divided into two groups. Those who expect to run slower than 10-minute miles head out at 7 a.m. (called the “Buffalo Migration”) while those who expect to be faster start at 8. This puts me at the back of the second group.

It was a pleasant, cloudy morning with a slight breeze. The Migration consisted of 210 runners and walkers and another 277 ran in the Stampede.

Mile 1 – 9:31

Mile 2 – 9:12

Mile 3 – 9:14

Whatever gets you through your race is fine with me, and I know I’m a sour old grump, but the incessant loud gabbing that goes on in the back of the pack invariably spurs me on to greater speed. No interesting information ever appeared in a sentence that began, “My orthodontist said…” Most of us don’t really care how many Facebook friends you have. I’m thrilled your kids like their new teacher, but in the early morning on a quiet street your voice carries a long way.

Mile 4 – 9:15

Mile 5 – 9:13

Mile 6 – 9:03

So by the time I reach the halfway point I’ve settled into a pretty good groove, a bit faster than I trained. I feel neither good nor bad, just average. The aid station at mile 5 is manned by school kids and their teacher/coach. While the kids yell “Water!” and “Sports drink!” the coach yells, “Doughnuts!” My man!

I head over there and find those fat pills have been cut into quarters for easy handling and digestion. I grab a Homer Simpson special, pink sprinkles and all. As I shove the delicious morsel in my mouth, the kids start to chant, “Chew! Chew!”

Well I don’t know if it was the sugar or the psychological boost, but I picked up speed and felt much better afterwards.

Mile 7 – 9:03

Mile 8 – 8:46

Mile 9 – 8:54

I’m getting that same feeling I got down the stretch of my last half-marathon. I’m going faster and feeling more comfortable. Everything is rosy as I pass the mile 8 marker – and pull my right groin muscle.

There was no doubt that’s what it was, and for a few strides it hurt nasty-bad, but I worried that if I stopped, I wouldn’t be able to start up again. So I kept running, it stayed loose, and the pain dissipated.

Mile 10 – 8:31

Does it make me a bad person if I admit that I really enjoy “passing with authority” in the latter miles of a long race? Some runners are so focused on themselves they don’t even notice you, but the best ones are the runners who hear you coming, glance back, then try to stay with you as motor by. You can literally hear the air go out of them as you pull away. It’s an added bonus if it’s someone who zipped past you in the early miles. I passed at least a dozen people in the last two miles and the feeling never gets old.

Finish – 1:31:15. An improvement of four minutes over my last 10-miler. If you include the Migration people, I came in 215th of 487. Still, it was a dose of humility to see that out of the runners who ran in the Stampede, I came in 40th – dead last! – in my age group. And by almost three minutes.

After almost a full year of waiting until the last minute to register for races, I signed up for three in advance – and got injured. The groin pull is mild, but it still means a layoff of at least a couple of weeks in order to avoid aggravating it. What fun!

Buffalo Stampede

It was time to pay the price for pre-registering for all those races. I’m less than 100%, but I’ve been aggressively treating my leg with ice, rest and, when necessary, Advil. So I got up on Sunday morning for the Buffalo Stampede 10-miler, put on by the Buffalo Chips Running Club. I love this race because it’s a great distance and instead of a generic t-shirt, we got a fleece vest. Cool! Or should I say, Warm!

The race also has an unusual arrangement: If you travel slower than 10 minutes per mile, they start you out an hour earlier. It had little effect on middle-of-the-packers like me, but the front-runners probably ended up dodging a lot of walkers on the way back.

Anyway, it is a well-organized race on a flat course. The weather was breezy but pleasant. My only complaint was I failed to spot – if they existed – mile markers at 4, 5 and 6. I don’t have a Garmin, so there was an extended period where I wasn’t sure how I was doing. As it turned out, it didn’t matter much.

I ran the first mile in 8:57, then ran the remaining nine miles within the 8:26-8:34 range. It’s rare for me to find a pace and hold it so closely for that length of time. I felt pretty good the entire way and the leg wasn’t much of a problem. I would have liked to have been about 20 seconds per mile faster, and I had no extra gear at the end, but considering how I felt just seven days ago, I’m pretty happy with my performance.

I finished in 1:25:17 – more than 7 minutes off my PR, but a decent improvement over a similar distance just two months ago. I should probably give up looking at positioning. We have many, many amazing runners in this area. My time placed me 265th out of the 836 total participants, and 35th of 69 in my age group. Normally it would be a bummer for me to finish so low in my age group, but if I had PR’ed, I would have only moved up to 21st. These old guys are nasty fast.

No rest for the leg weary. I have two more races this week. I’ll explain tomorrow.